Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/02
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Eric,
By "great photographer" I meant to suggest "great artist," not "great
photojournalist." That the Eddie Adams photograph of General Lo's act
would have, as you say, "no impact" if it had been a mere posed event
illustrates my point. The impact of it is photojournalistic and not
necessarily artistic.
You later wrote (or at least I THINK that it was you) that "HCB is a
PAINTER! His pictures just LOOK like photos. He will not say 'I'm a
photojournalist.' Or 'I'm a photographer.' Or even 'I'm a painter.'
But he WILL say 'I am a surrealist.' Now who but a painter would say
that?" Painters paint posed subjects or even imaginary scenes all the
time, and we do not depreciate them for doing so. Of course no one
wants a news photo to be contrived. But Cartier-Bresson's photographs
are something other than photojournalism (even if photojournalism had
been the happenstance of their creation!): they are works of art. And
as such, they are self-sufficient, and we need not be concerned with
how they were created or with what the artist may or may not choose to
call himself, because nothing in their means of creation and nothing
about the artist himself can ever affect their inherent and enduring
value as works of art.
Art Peterson
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re[2]: [Leica] RE: Cartier Bresson and the 6 exposures.
Author: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us at internet Date: 12/1/97 11:32 PM
At 01:48 PM 12/1/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
> If we were to admire Henri Cartier-Bresson for his supposed technique,
> we should be disappointed to learn that it was something other than we
> had been led to believe. But a great photographer is not the one with
> a great technique, but the one who produces great photographs whatever
> his technique may happen to be. And I know of no photographer who has
> produced greater photographs than Cartier-Bresson.
This I have to disagree with. If a person claims their photos are of "real
life" that is, unposed unmanipulated situations, and then it turns out that
they aren't, then those photos lose their value.
Eddie Adams' picture of General Lo killing the man in Vietnam would have no
impact at all if the "dead" guy turned up as the cook in the General's
pizza parlor in Washington D.C. years later.
Technique, when it comes to photojournalism, is one thing. Art, well,
that's another thing. As long as it doesn't pretend to be something it's not.
==========
Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch
When there's a will, I want to be in it.